When minorities speak but we don't listen

Attack in farmland area at the outskirts of Ljubljana 

by Mateja Mihinjac

A few weeks ago, a brutal attack on an elderly farmer shocked the residents of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. News outlets quickly reported that the four men responsible for the attack were members of the Roma community.

In response to this attack—along with more than 15 years of ongoing incidents and threats from some members of the Roma community—residents in the farmer’s local area announced a peaceful rally to support the victim and draw attention to the unresolved tension.


Some locals even warned that if no steps were taken, they might form vigilante neighbourhood patrols. One MP went so far as to suggest that citizens join shooting clubs and acquire weapons to protect themselves.


Peaceful protests occurred supporting the victim 

These remarks were widely condemned by fellow MPs, the President of Slovenia, and the Shooting Association of Slovenia, which stressed that shooting clubs exist for sport—not self-defence.
Meanwhile, Roma representatives emphasised that the actions of a few individuals should not vilify an entire community.


This is just one of many incidents over the past two decades. What has led to this persistent divide between the Roma and the broader Slovene population?

WHAT GOT US HERE?

The Roma are an ethnic minority originating from northern India who migrated to Europe around 1,000 years ago. Today, 10–12 million Roma live across Europe, with an estimated 8,500 residing in Slovenia.
Tensions arise from a mix of historical, cultural, and systemic factors. Many Roma communities live in extended family settlements, often in informal housing lacking infrastructure. One EU report described this as “ethnic and social ghettoisation.”


European Union research on the Slovenian Roma population

Roma communities also face poor health outcomes, including high infant mortality and smoking rates among pregnant women. Education remains a challenge; a decade-old report showed that nearly half of Roma pupils had not completed primary school, often due to language barriers. This has contributed to high unemployment and ongoing reliance on social assistance, which in turn discourages social mobility.


Discrimination has also been a long-standing issue. Although progress has been made, the Roma Civil Monitor project points to persistent barriers: a lack of disaggregated data, limited institutional coordination, insufficient involvement of Roma in policy-making, and the absence of parliamentary representation.


As in other SafeGrowth projects where we confront minority-related crime and social division, these conditions highlight how deep-rooted challenges require community-driven solutions—not reactive measures.

Slovenia - a European country of scenic mountains and countryside -
rarely associated with violence 

WHAT MOVES US FORWARD?

Reconciling opposing traditions and value systems between minority groups and their broader population is not new. In SafeGrowth, we often need to reconcile many viewpoints and ideas that diverse people from the neighbourhood have, and then also find a common language between that neighbourhood community and organisations that they partner with.

Slovenia has also made some strides towards progress. 

In my next blog, I’ll explore Slovenia’s Framework, which aims to address the most critical barriers, including education, employment, and social dependency. These issues resonate in every country where we provide SafeGrowth programming. I will highlight policing strategies and multi-ethnic community policing programs that successfully reduce tensions and build trust between Roma communities and law enforcement.

I’ll share the story of one Roma village that became self-governing—a model that demonstrates what is possible when integration is built from the ground up. 

Stay tuned!

Where the green grass grows - Rural crime

by Tarah Hodgkinson

When we think about crime, we tend to think about the city. We think about robberies, gangs and guns and we imagine dark alleys or vacant lots. We don’t tend to associate rural areas with crime. We often romanticize them as idyllic places where life is slower, people know their neighbors and crime is rare.

However, the data does not support these imaginings. In Canada, for example, with only two exceptions, the top 20 highest crime rate communities are all towns or small cities in rural areas.

Imagining crime beyond the city can be difficult. While the overall number of incidents are lower in rural areas, crime rates in rural Canada and Australia are often higher than their urban counterparts. In the U.S., although large urban cities like New Orleans, Atlanta, and Chicago compete for the title of crime capital, the States with the highest crime rates are among the most rural – Alaska, New Mexico and Nevada.

WHY IS CRIME RURAL?

Rural issues are different as well.  The recent research reveals high rates of theft and violence, particularly domestic violence, impaired driving and the use of crystal methamphetamine. In areas of drought, water theft is a major problem.

Rural crime is intimately linked to changes that have affected rural communities such as a reduction in job opportunities, poverty, few opportunities for youth, and a lack of access to mental health and addiction treatment services. Additionally, many rural communities are ethnically homogenous, but rural policies often alienate indigenous populations.

Further, increases in immigration have led to increasing tensions and scapegoating onto these already marginalized groups. This is in spite of the reality that legitimate research on immigration and crime reveals that immigration leads to a decrease - or zero effect - on crime.

Rural crime also poses unique problems for prevention. For example, building local capacity in rural communities is much different than in urban areas. While rural areas account for approximately 17% of the population in North America, developing crime prevention strategies is no easy feat where distances are not walkable, services are difficult to access, and local stakeholders are few.

These problems are exacerbated when most research on the causes and solutions to crime comes from studies in urban areas. It is no small matter that CPTED was a product of large cities and none of the original writers spoke of rural areas.

RURAL CRIMINOLOGY 

Rural criminology is a new branch of criminology trying to better understand these issues. There is now a rural criminology division at the American Society of Criminology and a centre for rural criminology at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia. However, these groups are relatively new and their ideas are still emerging.

Only in recent years have we seen research emerging in the conferences of the International CPTED Association about crime prevention in rural areas.

At this point, there are no easy answers to preventing crime in rural communities. We have seen some success in smaller communities in Canada where SafeGrowth has been adopted wholeheartedly by local leaders, such as in North Battleford, Canada. However, as we gain a better understanding of the rural correlates of crime, we continue to adapt our methods and strategies to these new contexts - what SafeGrowth has always done.